I need a little help with portable and mobile operations. 1st question if you are running a rig while driving, are you still mobile if you park the car?

Also I hear operators often sign with their call sign followed by /portable 8 or /portable 6. I am assuming the numbers reflect the zone they are transmitting from. Would this be accurate and is it required?

Mobile operation is the operation from a station CAPABLE of being operated while in motion be it in a land vehicle, watercraft, aircraft, or pedestrian. Portable operation is operation away from your licensed location.

The FCC used to require us to identify as "portable 7" or the like when we were operating away from our designated station location (even if in the same callsigndistrict.) It is no longer required, but is often done either out of force of habit,or as a way to give people a better idea of where you are located. (It isn'tuncommon for someone to hear my callsign and aim their beam at California, even though I'm no longer located there.) For contests where scoring isbased on the number of states or other locations worked, this makes it moreclear how to score a contact with me.

There is nothing in the current Amateur radio rules that requires the use of the terms "mobile" or "portable", or even defines what constitutes one or the other.You're no longer required to use them, but some hams do. In certainsituations, such as a contest, there may be rules that apply for that event(such as the "mobile" category on Field Day.)

I would generally use "mobile" to describe operation from a vehicle where itis possible to operate while in motion. I might use "pedestrian mobile" todescribe walking down the trail talking on the radio, and "portable" for atemporary station, whether carried in the car or a backpack. But suchdesignators mean whatever the person using them wants them to mean,because there is no "legal" definition.

Just me, but I usually identify as "/mobile" if I'm in my car, though if I'm parked and we chat, I'll mention that I'm in the car but not moving. I'll identify as "/portable" (/P on CW) if I'm operating from my lawn chair or riding mower.

Nearly all my operations are either /M or /7 as home is a condo. / M is , even when parked you could drive with out stowing wire antenna, disconnecting 120 VAC etc. Only sign /7 (or what ever) if I am not in my home county. If on County Hunter freqs I don't sign /P as just confuses things for others. When /p in contest may or may not sign /P depends on contest. Worked CW SS from cabin in Skagit county WA. Didn't use /, if QSL I note on card. Back in the day had to use/ 7 etc. Also when operating out of your home QTH for more then few days had to notify FCC district engineer in that area. Was royal pain as I traveled on job.

...Also when operating out of your home QTH for more then few days had to notify FCC district engineer in that area...

Over half my contacts were made "portable" in the first 5 years I had my license.I can still rattle off the Engineer-in-Charge's address from memory, though it's beenover 30 years since I sent such a notice.

This included the actual location where you were going to be operating, which wasn'teasy in some areas. One Boy Scout camp was located by estimated latitude and longitude, and when I was working as a surveyor in a logging camp I gave a bearing and distance from the flagpole at the Post Office.

Fortunately, as far as I can tell, the FCC never needed to locate my station.

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